Why Women Fight

An author talk on the history of women in combat

Doors: 6.30pm

Event: 7pm - 9pm

Women have always fought. What changes is why, where and how their stories are remembered.

In Why Women Fight: The Long History of Women in Combat, Victoria Preston traces women’s involvement in warfare from the ancient world to the battlefields of Ukraine, challenging the idea that the female combatant is a modern phenomenon. Through historical research and first-hand interviews with resistance fighters, soldiers, conscripts and volunteers — including women who have fought in Iraq, Ukraine and Colombia — she explores what drives people towards combat: survival, kinship, ideology, desperation, liberty and the defence of those around them.

After four decades working in strategic communications with international organisations and governments, Victoria joined the British Army at 59 as a Specialist Reservist Officer, serving under the Royal Engineers cap badge and ultimately retiring as a Colonel.

Victoria will begin with a presentation about her book and then We’ll then move into conversation exploring human needs and resources in relation to warfare, courage, social expectations, identity and the circumstances in which people become willing to fight.

• Presentation

• Interview

• Audience Q&A